Roosterbank: Smart, online piggybanking for kids

UK-based startup Roosterbank is working on changing the way kids and parents negotiate the issue of pocket-money.

If you’re a young TNW reader and you think you’re getting short-changed on your pocket-money this may be of interest to you. Also – get off my lawn, wait ’til you meet the tax man.

For parents Roosterbank could be a good way to teach kids a bit more about financial responsibility and how to track their savings – or lack thereof.

The online piggy-bank is free to sign up to and allows children to save and spend in a safe environment. It was released into private beta in June and over 300 families with kids aged 6-12 provided feedback to help shape the service that is now being rolled out.

Roosterbank was designed by kids and parents, so it has a pretty good grounding for what the users may need. Weekly pocket-money issued to the site so far has ranged between 90 pence and £5 per child.

There’s also some interesting data already emerging from users. Girls seem to be happy to save for lower value items, while boys focus on larger saving targets in the site’s shop. The site also reveals the reasons for earning more pocket-money, this includes tidy rooms, good behaviour and school results.

Shopping and saving

To use the site, kids can log in to a personalised dashboard. From there they can review their current pocket-money savings and consider their targets. The service encourages the tiny financiers to make decisions about what they might use the money for, whether that’s books, toys, savings or charity donations.

In addition to the pocket-money features, there is a little more fun to be had with a virtual world to explore and a community to play games with. All of this is conducted in a safe and supervised environment. Certainly online banking for grownups is not this fun.

As Christmas is pretty important to ankle-biters, Roosterbank is cooking up a function for presents. A community for older children is also in the works which should help consolidate the appeal to a wider age range.

Getting kids to understand the value of money is never going to be easy. It’s boring when you’re an adult, it’s probably moreso when you’re ten years old. But sites like this do help to find ways to train youngsters for the future.

At least if they are successful savers, when the economy goes under completely, we can ask the kids for a fiver.